So many posts about photo restoration, but what can be done to prevent photo restoration in the first place?
I guess the obvious one is looking after your photos! What I am really talking about is thinking first before your store your photos.
How to store photos – Keep them dry and flat
- Wherever you store your photos make sure they are kept somewhere dry! This may seem obvious but keep them flat too, not thrown in a drawer or piled up randomly.
- What to store them in?
- If your photos are in albums that they can be removed from, store them in either acid-free photo pockets, polypropylene or polyester pockets are the ones to go for. Avoid all others as overtime the plastics can leach into the photos and damage them. Especially avoid adhesive pages with cover sheets. The chemicals from the glues can leech into the photos causes fading colours, cracking and brittleness. Not to mention sticking them together if you remove them from the album and place them on top of each other.
- You could remount them in an album using an acid-free archival album with built-in overlay sheets to hold them in place.
- If your photos are really large then place a sheet of acid-free tissue paper between then before the next step.
- Put them in an acid-free photo storage box
Where to store them?
- Photos have to breathe so make sure they are stored somewhere dry and not cold and damp. Spare shelf inside the bedroom wardrobe or storage chest at the foot of the bed.
- Statistically, the driest place is in the box room or spare room, there are fewer pipes to burst and no on suite to flood.
- Perhaps it may be a good idea to pick the room furthest away from your loft or attic water tank as well just in case of burst there too.
- Don’t put them in the basement or attic/loft. They are either prone to damp or excess heat.
- If you look after your photos then hopefully you will not need my services!
If you have any further advice or need my photo restoration services leave a comment or get in touch.!